Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa denied any manipulation of air quality data and accused the Aam Aadmi Party of politicising this matter.
Sirsa said all air quality monitoring stations in Delhi were under the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM), which submits reports to the Supreme Court, and challenged those making such claims to approach the court.
He said pollution levels usually rise after Diwali every year, citing a 40 per cent increase recorded in 2023. However, he attributed this year’s relatively lower pollution levels to favourable wind speeds and said the city has recorded the cleanest AQI in a decade under the BJP Govt.
“Wherever the Aam Aadmi Party is in power, the air has been polluted. The AQI has crossed 1,300 in Punjab and other states,” he said, accusing the opposition party of shifting the focus by alleging manipulation of air quality data.
He said around 40 per cent of the monitoring stations in Delhi were operated by the state Government, while the remaining stations belonged to the Centre. Most of the missing air quality data from Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) monitoring stations on Diwali night was updated, revealing alarmingly high particulate matter concentrations in the early hours of Monday, with readings at some locations several times above prescribed limits.
However, gaps in the official data persisted, with some particulate matter readings unavailable and data from Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) monitoring stations still missing, raising concerns over the completeness and reliability of the records, experts said.
AAP Delhi unit chief Saurabh Bharadwaj accused the BJP Government of blaming Punjab for Delhi’s pollution and cited data from the Centre’s System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) to argue that stubble burning had made a negligible contribution to the capital’s pollution on Diwali night.
Bharadwaj said SAFAR’s website showed that stubble smoke accounted for around 5 per cent of Delhi’s pollution on the night before Diwali, adding that the smoke could have come from Haryana, Punjab or Uttar Pradesh.
He further claimed that the contribution of stubble burning on November 9, Diwali night, was negligible or almost zero.
Accusing the BJP Government and Environment Minister Kapil Mishra of misleading people, Bharadwaj said winds had been blowing towards Pakistan since Diwali, making it difficult for smoke from Punjab to reach Delhi.